If your rankings have been in flux lately it may due to the Hummingbird update. Not a lot of details, but Google is getting better at recognizing long-tail searches that ask questions and seeking to provide answers. This will ultimately be important for voice searches.

I've been tracking changes across numerous niches since the first week in September. Sites that had been in top 5 for about two years dropping to the twenties, and vice-versa. And of course plenty of less drastic changes. But also many searches have not changed, suggesting if Hummingbird is in play the SERPS already correlated to the new algorithm. A new algo does not necessarily mean rankings will change. But knowing about it means you have more information to potentially change rankings going forward.

This is the type of search change that will require some thought. An FAQ is a great idea.

For instance, a search for: blue acme widgets

If it is assumed Google is trying to answer the question where to buy blue acme widgets, or what is the best deal on blue acme widgets, then adjustments to a page could result in a higher ranking. That is not just having the keywords on the page or in backlinks, but associating the keywords with answer words.

Why is the person making the search? Answer that question on your page and your rankings may improve. There may also be implications for backlinks. It is not simply keyword variations or LSI keywords to consider, but targeted words reflecting your page answers a question.

An assumed purchase inquiry would also suggest a site benefits from having "purchase" words on it as opposed to an article site.

This seems important:

The main focus, and something that went repeated many a time, was that the new algorithm allows Google to more quickly parse full questions (as opposed to parsing searches word-by-word), and to identify and rank answers to those questions from the content they’ve indexed.

Exactly why you want to be diversified in this business. I treat this business like an investment portfolio because if you put all your eggs into one basket like ranking sites or seo related and google decides to give you the slap, you're screwed.

Yep they are saying it affects 90% of all searches. It appears the changes are designed to provide better search results for long-tailed queries which are often conducted on mobile devices. Forbes has a great article on the changes:

Exactly why you want to be diversified in this business. I treat this business like an investment portfolio because if you put all your eggs into one basket like ranking sites or seo related and google decides to give you the slap, you're screwed.

Yes Lawd!!!!

Your absolutely right, that's why I would go paid. At least I have more control. But diversity is the way to goooo.

Meh.... I still dont know why people even care anymore... do the right thing, the smart thing and you will be fine. Kind of like saying Police introduced new technology to catch speeding or drink drivers, the only people that should care are those that break the rules.

Affect does not mean change...to 90% of searches...you'd have
to define those 90% of searches. Most searched for words are
ones like "facebook." Like google is going to change the results of
that?!?!?

And lets' see...they introduced it a month ago?!?!

Paul

And already I am getting an email selling e the answer to my Hummingbird problems. I revert back to my British heritage and all I have to say is, gooooord blimy.

I had not even heard of Hummingbird, outside of those I see on my backyard.

I don have a single site that is ranked for anything, but one of y sites is getting anywhere from about 300 to 400 visits a day from social media. I have not tried to rank for anything in close to a year now.

So I guess I should buy this as I don't want to be wiped out by a alog. change that happened a month ago and none noticed . :rolleyes:

Who the hell made this a sticky, I didn't read the whole thread, but it seems like pretty much of a joke as best as I can see?

To be fair, it just doesn't seem that big an update in and of itself - almost a smokescreen. There's been interesting flux for the past few years or so (notwithstanding the outstanding past year) - up and down, SERPs flexing like crazy. EMDs, amazon aff sites fluctuation (some kind of branding or commercial preferential treatment), Panda blending into the algo as a rolling update and Penguin reiterations. Add to that migration of KW tool to planner, encrypted search, knowledge graph, some more network take-downs (russian sape, ghost and other ******* children of the aforementioned), the disavow tool, etc. etc. ad infinitum.

There's the bigger picture of what the Big G has been doing. Way more than holding it's head above water. They shake off lawsuits and succumb in other arenas. I like their bold steadfastness and creativity - they have ideas for the world and they have long-term plans. They have a business. More so than anybody else here.

Content marketers have been warning about this for years. Learn the questions people are asking -- either by divining it from long tail terms or by asking people. Answer their questions in a way that sets you apart from other people answering the same questions.

Long tail keywords are going to start looking more and more like questions now, so it should get easier.

Google just announced that ""Humming Bird"" is already working for last 1 months. I read some of the articles specially Danny Sullivan's article where he mention all. Whatever i got that it will deeply works on Key searches but i am not clear yet....Any idea whats going on? or what will be? Need to know it if anyone knows better....

A search for “acid reflux prescription” used to list a lot of drugs (such as this, Google said), which might not be necessarily be the best way to treat the disease. Now, Google says results have information about treatment in general, including whether you even need drugs, such as this as one of the listings.

Another example, which may be a concern for many marketers as it elevates to the top spots brand links in the SERPS above a keyword rich page on a site relying on advertising:

A search for “pizza hut calories per slice” used to list an answer like this, Google said, but not one from Pizza Hut. Now, it lists this answer directly from Pizza Hut itself, Google says.

.

Plugging both of those searches into Google is an interesting exercise. Looking at acid reflux prescription the top spots are authority sites, and the Mayo Clinic listing added by Hummingbird does not have the search phrase in the title or anywhere on the page. Someone can research whether that phrase appears in any backlinks, but I doubt it.

It could be authority sites will dominate even more for virtually any search even if the search phrase appears nowhere on a page.

On the other hand, the acid reflux search result for me is showing a 2007 Ezine Articles article at #9. No idea where it appeared pre-Hummingbird. There are several search results which are fairly old, which apart from possibly being dangerous for a medical search, may have implications for what Google is now deciding to show.

Plugging both of those searches into Google is an interesting exercise. Looking at acid reflux prescription the top spots are authority sites, and the Mayo Clinic listing added by Hummingbird does not have the search phrase in the title or anywhere on the page. Someone can research whether that phrase appears in any backlinks, but I doubt it.

The #1 ranked page for the keyword acid reflux prescription might not mention the [exact] keyword phrase but it does mention each individual keyword from the phrase multiple times:

I didn't check but I'm sure each one of those individual keywords (acid, reflux, prescription) have a boat load of relevant internal pages & most likely the individual keywords in some form as anchor-text/page-title pointing back to that #1 ranked page (cache link above).

So instead of the exact keyword they could be doing 3 additional internal pages (small example) for each individual keyword with internal links pointing back to the ranked page to complete the series of supporting pages needed to boost that ranked page.

I've been telling folks to do this (silo pages) for as long as I've been a member of this forum. It's nothing new, the technique has been solid for well over the last 10 years (Bruce Clay).

If that's the path Google wants to follow (piecing together keyword phrases) it only makes silos that much stronger.

Originally Posted by kindsvater

It could be authority sites will dominate even more for virtually any search even if the search phrase appears nowhere on a page.

I cringe each time someone suggest SEO is based on a large business in the niche. Every ranked page has a breaking point for holding rank in the SERPs.

I've been tracking changes across numerous niches since the first week in September. Sites that had been in top 5 for about two years dropping to the twenties, and vice-versa. And of course plenty of less drastic changes. But also many searches have not changed, suggesting if Hummingbird is in play the SERPS already correlated to the new algorithm. A new algo does not necessarily mean rankings will change. But knowing about it means you have more information to potentially change rankings going forward.

This is the type of search change that will require some thought. An FAQ is a great idea.

For instance, a search for: blue acme widgets

If it is assumed Google is trying to answer the question where to buy blue acme widgets, or what is the best deal on blue acme widgets, then adjustments to a page could result in a higher ranking. That is not just having the keywords on the page or in backlinks, but associating the keywords with answer words.

Why is the person making the search? Answer that question on your page and your rankings may improve. There may also be implications for backlinks. It is not simply keyword variations or LSI keywords to consider, but targeted words reflecting your page answers a question.

An assumed purchase inquiry would also suggest a site benefits from having "purchase" words on it as opposed to an article site.

Another example, which may be a concern for many marketers as it elevates to the top spots brand links in the SERPS above a keyword rich page on a site relying on advertising:

.

Plugging both of those searches into Google is an interesting exercise. Looking at acid reflux prescription the top spots are authority sites, and the Mayo Clinic listing added by Hummingbird does not have the search phrase in the title or anywhere on the page. Someone can research whether that phrase appears in any backlinks, but I doubt it.

It could be authority sites will dominate even more for virtually any search even if the search phrase appears nowhere on a page.

On the other hand, the acid reflux search result for me is showing a 2007 Ezine Articles article at #9. No idea where it appeared pre-Hummingbird. There are several search results which are fairly old, which apart from possibly being dangerous for a medical search, may have implications for what Google is now deciding to show.

.

.

Originally Posted by yukon

The #1 ranked page for the keyword acid reflux prescription might not mention the [exact] keyword phrase but it does mention each individual keyword from the phrase multiple times:

I didn't check but I'm sure each one of those individual keywords (acid, reflux, prescription) have a boat load of relevant internal pages & most likely the individual keywords in some form as anchor-text/page-title pointing back to that #1 ranked page (cache link above).

So instead of the exact keyword they could be doing 3 additional internal pages (small example) for each individual keyword with internal links pointing back to the ranked page to complete the series of supporting pages needed to boost that ranked page.

I've been telling folks to do this (silo pages) for as long as I've been a member of this forum. It's nothing new, the technique has been solid for well over the last 10 years (Bruce Clay).

If that's the path Google wants to follow (piecing together keyword phrases) it only makes silos that much stronger.

I cringe each time someone suggest SEO is based on a large business in the niche. Every ranked page has a breaking point for holding rank in the SERPs.

Reminds me when people suggest Wikipedia has magical SEO powers.

What I see here in these posts is a wealth of information for anyone. I think this is some good in depth anaylizing going back & forth, thinking out loud type of responses which is a huge help for anyone...thanks guys.

but i am new to SEO, my website is only 6 months old and i am trying to learn from every little pieces of info you guys are writing on this forum.

So far i was relying on the LinkEmperor and IndexEmperor service which worked well for the past 3 months... frankly it was all good, 3 days before this update, i was beginning to finally make some benefits... and then this Penguin 2.1 just gave me a good morale hit 3 days later... no more sales, the party is over.

I dropped so much i was thinking i was banned, but i still see my website in google and i don't have the "reconsideration request" available in my google account... so might not be banned... just kicked out from google best results.

I do hope Link Building services like "Emperor" are not going to die with this Penguin 2.1... well... it was a good way for me to just pay and see things working in front of me without lifting a finger. After all... everybody his job... and i am willing to pay for a good service.

After all major updates through panda and penguin, Google is ready to introduce biggest update named as hummingbird update. This is considered to be the biggest change in Google algorithm and will change almost every parameter that reflects search results.

As per resources, hummingbird update is design to handle more complex queries and will affects 90% of search worldwide.

It's too early to predict about hummingbird because had to go through some basic evaluation of how it going to keep search results. So finger crossed and get ready to change your traditional SEO strategies.

The primary objective of such updates is to improve quality in search results and better user experience. These updates are provides alerts to webmaster to maintain quality in website with respect to content, backlinks and promotion methods.

It's a scary time to be a webmaster. I'm growing more convinced that Google hates SEOs.

Its only in your head...

Or how you explain your sentence after you read an article about changes google did to the frontend of their search?

Hummingbird's technology is mainly focused on the way *how* you access the SERPS - not how to make the SERPS (which is done by panda, penguin & co.).

Its for things like voice search on mobiles, where you must handle the more natural sentences compared to written search terms.

Relax, guys. Google biggest win is not what panda & penguin is doing - it is what p&p do with you.

The funny thing is, that the SERPS are always in motion - but people think it is normal to stay on position.

When then positions are going down, they think "its the end of the world" and look for reasons.
Then they read "new technology last month applied" and think "hey, that must be the reason, it fits the time as it was going down".

You must understand that exactly THAT was targeted by google.

They thought "hm, when we change something, people noticed it and then they change their spaming stuff so it fits again - we will never win this because there is always a hole. We can't make a perfect ago, that mathematical not possible and they know it".

But then, some google dev said "what happens when we add a random timed random ranking malus to every website which changes its SEO malus in a way which invokes a SERP change for that website? Would it not make it impossible to adjust a site to a algo change because you never know what and how the ranking position change is initiated?"

And thats exactly what google did and that is exactly what 99% of the people here did not understand or want to undestand.

Google added a random applied SERPs malus to your website, which wears out over a short time. So, when you did something great, which normally will bring you on #1, that random thing will give you a malus putting you on middle of page 2.

Now, what happens? The not so good SEO will think "damn, it did not worked, lets remove it and try something else".

And what will google think? "ah, he removed the change, so it was pure SEO, lets add this time an even bigger malus to see how far this sucker goes".

And that is the reason why google is winning the game so far at last to the usual user in this forum.

I am a very un-experienced warrior.
and I have just started running SEO on my site for 5 weeks.
very few SEO done (couple dofollows, links in profiles, and one multi tier web2.0 package bought)
last week I have got 4 of my main keywords reached google page1,2,3
(#9,#12,#19,#33)

but 2 days ago one of the keywords seriously dropped while 3 other remains. (#10, #12, #20, #NA)

not sure if it was affected by "Hummingbird" or other reasons.
But I'm kinda confused cause I applied same action to all those important cornerstone pages.
If it's penalized by hummingbird, then all those pages should be banned.
To make this sure I want to ask if any of the SEO moves now confirmed as illegal in the new Hummingbird path?
Anyone got penalty like me?
Any comments.will be appreciated

==========I just ran my google rank again...and it's a nightmare...==============
see how my rank dropped...http://imgur.com/a/eeGsu
the honeymoon is over...

I am a very un-experienced warrior.
and I have just started running SEO on my site for 5 weeks.
very few SEO done (couple dofollows, links in profiles, and one multi tier web2.0 package bought)
last week I have got 4 of my main keywords reached google page1,2,3
(#9,#12,#19,#33)

but 2 days ago one of the keywords seriously dropped while 3 other remains. (#10, #12, #20, #NA)

not sure if it was affected by "Hummingbird" or other reasons.
But I'm kinda confused cause I applied same action to all those important cornerstone pages.
If it's penalized by hummingbird, then all those pages should be banned.
To make this sure I want to ask if any of the SEO moves now confirmed as illegal in the new Hummingbird path?
Anyone got penalty like me?
Any comments.will be appreciated

==========I just ran my google rank again...and it's a nightmare...==============
see how my rank dropped...Photo Album - Imgur
the honeymoon is over...

Hmm. I always tell my clients and will be telling this more often in the future I suppose: that whatever you have been doing for your website which helped you achieve top rankings, you should not "abruptly" stop doing altogether, for this is used as a signal, a "confirmation" that you're shouting to Google that 'you know, Big G, I have been gaming your system.'

I would like to know fromthe SEO savy warriors what differences the Google Hummingbird update actually makes in the SERP's, and how that affects the way Internet Marketers deal with SEO.

Thanks

It was designed to handle complex queries.

It seems to me this would involve making LOTS more long tail style pages. To me this update won't be very helpful to the average IM'er. Instead, it will favor huge sites that already have lots of pages and staff to make more.

with this update, review sites comparing products will have a harder time showing up or being clicked as google already presents their own comparison charts on "vs" searches.

most striking is that google could correlate subsequent searches with previous ones. per their example of the great danes and common health problems searches where google would think that those two searches are related, this could mean that sites with tons of related content could rank much better as subsequent search results could show the same results of the sites have both search topics in their content.

alternatively, this could be a nuisance if google would think that every subsequent searches you make is related to your first search topic. i might do a search, say, on mitsubishi car forums looking for a good one to discuss a car problem then on an unrelated matter i would do a search on internet marketing as part of my work 5 minutes later. i wouldn't want google to show me tips on marketing to car owners or shops.

alternatively, this could be a nuisance if google would think that every subsequent searches you make is related to your first search topic. i might do a search, say, on mitsubishi car forums looking for a good one to discuss a car problem then on an unrelated matter i would do a search on internet marketing as part of my work 5 minutes later. i wouldn't want google to show me tips on marketing to car owners or shops.

I would like to know from the SEO savy fighters what variations the Search engines Hummingbird upgrade actually creates in the SERP's, and how that impacts the way Online Promoters cope with SEO.
Thanks
MAG STUDIOS

The entire post gives you a rounded overview of how to conduct your content optimization. All 1500 words gives you the history, function, examples and ideas of what to do. Don't isolate one part, it's a whole.

The entire post gives you a rounded overview of how to conduct your content optimization. All 1500 words gives you the history, function, examples and ideas of what to do. Don't isolate one part, it's a whole.

I'll change my post titles on one of my affiliate sites and see what happens.

As a matter of fact I changed some post titles about 3 days ago to more exact keywords and as a result one of my keywords that was stable for a long time dropped out of the top 500 could be coincedence though, but pretty weird.

I'll change my post titles on one of my affiliate sites and see what happens.

As a matter of fact I changed some post titles about 3 days ago to more exact keywords and as a result one of my keywords that was stable for a long time dropped out of the top 500 could be coincedence though, but pretty weird.

I didn't, nor would I ever suggest changing a title. Always seemed to result in bad things happening and you're case is further evidence of that.

I've changed titles 1000's times over the year and I can't say that it always resulted in bad things, actually this is the first time that a kw disappeared after changing the title.

Has nothing to do with any Google update.

I've posted in old forum threads how changing page titles can help rank 1 page for multiple variations of the same keyword (at the same time). Google's servers are either really slow at syncing, or they keep that old page title in a database.

If you change a page title on a ranked page, the page drops in the SERPs, then change back to the original page title, the page should bump back to the old ranked SERP position (assumes the keyword doesn't have hardcore comp.). Works good for testing lower comp. keywords without creating new pages as long as the on-page text is the same subject when split testing page titles.

I've posted in old forum threads how changing page titles can help rank 1 page for multiple variations of the same keyword (at the same time). Google's servers are either really slow at syncing, or they keep that old page title in a database.

If you change a page title on a ranked page, the page drops in the SERPs, then change back to the original page title, the page should bump back to the old ranked SERP position (assumes the keyword doesn't have hardcore comp.). Works good for testing lower comp. keywords without creating new pages as long as the on-page text is the same subject when split testing page titles.

If Google favors questions, with a big IF as it seems to me they are more into answering the questions themselves, then why wouldn't it help to change post titles to question format?

It's just one of the ways for Google to identify whether a question is asked or not, afterall the title is one of the first things that Google reads.

If Google favors questions, with a big IF as it seems to me they are more into answering the questions themselves, then why wouldn't it help to change post titles to question format?

It's just one of the ways for Google to identify whether a question is asked or not, afterall the title is one of the first things that Google reads.

No rocket science here.

Your comment is borderline conspiracy theory.

Google doesn't answer questions, they might scrape partial answers from other sites but they don't answer any questions on their own & they've always linked to the page they scraped the partial answer from for the last 15 years.

Google doesn't answer questions, they might scrape partial answers from other sites but they don't answer any questions on their own & they've always linked to the page they scraped the partial answer from for the last 15 years.

Actually they are trying to answer questions about entities in their knowledge graph.

WHO ELSE WANTS TO WASTE TIME ANSWERING MEDIOCRE, VERGING ON BLAND QUESTIONS IN THEIR BLOG POSTS?

LoL c'mon guys, we've been doing this answer questions (by slapping them in our titles and other super black-operative measures) to catch the longtails for years. Why is Hummingbird, all of a sudden, something new?

Google doesn't answer questions, they might scrape partial answers from other sites but they don't answer any questions on their own & they've always linked to the page they scraped the partial answer from for the last 15 years.

Besides isn't a search engine supposed to provide answers? Imo that's the whole basic of all search so I can't blame them for answering it theirselves, no matter whether they have 2-3 links below it as source. As long as the answer is provided already people don't even have a reason to click on the source.

The only reason I would click on the source is to see the weather cast for the next few days but I guess Google was also smart enough to predict that so zero reason to click on the source.

Obvious this is done to keep them on the search engine where the ads are shown. Smart business model, and you consider it as conspiracy

Besides isn't a search engine supposed to provide answers? Imo that's the whole basic of all search so I can't blame them for answering it theirselves, no matter whether they have 2-3 links below it as source. As long as the answer is provided already people don't even have a reason to click on the source.

The only reason I would click on the source is to see the weather cast for the next few days but I guess Google was also smart enough to predict that so zero reason to click on the source.

Obvious this is done to keep them on the search engine where the ads are shown. Smart business model, and you consider it as conspiracy

This temperature thing was just the most extreme example I could find, it's a shame that you stare yourself so blind at one single keyword. I almost feel for you.

Yukon has a valid point though. Google has to look after their shareholders so unless it makes them more money (from adverts) directly I can't see them providing too much info directly on google.com. Doing so limits the opportunity for a searcher to choose clicking on an ad, either on the search network or the content display.

Google has to juggle providing a valuable service to the end-user and one that makes their advertisers, and themselves, money.

The two examples you compare are terrible. Ignoring the claims that Hummingbird has been live for a month or so and your post/pre dividing marks are actually all post, you say the pre-hummingbird site lost traffic when it didn't; it just lost pageviews. Your unique views are steady throughout the period.

You then compare a new domain with insignificant traffic with a rise of 50UVs: the proof your ideas work, to a site that looks to fluctuate daily by 50UVS or thereabouts.

I think it's much ado about nothing. Google is continuously tweaking and refining it's algorithms in order to improve the search results it delivers. They are constantly looking for ways to deliver exactly what is being searched for the first time, and bypass any intermediate site. If you are searching for widget that will allow you to have a chicken in your kitchen and produce fried eggs, they want to send you on your first click to the site that will deliver the widget, whether it's a shop down the street or at amazon.com.

They don't want to send you to a website that will refer you to the seller.

Looks like they are at it again. Do I smell an opportunity here with the "voice search" emphasis? Below is an excerpt from an article about the new upgrade. I haven't really heard much complaints about this one, so what is the verdict in comparison to Penguin et al?

"The new algorithm, codenamed Hummingbird, is the first major upgrade for three years.

It has already been in use for about a month, and affects about 90% of Google searches.

At a presentation on Thursday, the search giant was short on specifics but said Hummingbird is especially useful for longer and more complex queries.

Google stressed that a new algorithm is important as users expect more natural and conversational interactions with a search engine - for example, using their voice to speak requests into mobile phones, smart watches and other wearable technology.

Hummingbird is focused more on ranking information based on a more intelligent understanding of search requests, unlike its predecessor, Caffeine, which was targeted at better indexing of websites."

Yes. I had a weird "hump" that formed in the middle of the month as you can see. That never happens. My traffic for this site seems to be settling at 30-40% more than the previous month's avg. more keywords but not long tail ones or any more or less "question keyphrases" than normal. Just more keywords.

A crappy product or service by people that disappear from the forum for a long period of time to make it look like they were working on something so when they come back you will want to click on their crappy product or service link

Your making big claims in your article that are based on statistically flawed information. A change of 50UVs could be the difference of a keyword moving up one position. Your large site didn't drop at all.

Your making big claims in your article that are based on statistically flawed information. A change of 50UVs could be the difference of a keyword moving up one position. Your large site didn't drop at all.

Talking about claims, do you have my referer information? Because if you don't, then you are in no position to know where my traffic is coming from - are you?

If you are, tell me how the hell you know where my site's traffic is coming from and to what degree?

I'll be waiting, because I wrote a much nastier post earlier but pulled back not wanting to completely smash you and rather provide you the easy and polite way out of this.

That door is still open. I'd take it, because it's clear that since you have no idea where my traffic was coming from, you are in no position to say if Google traffic was affected (or not) at any point - thereby defeating your entire argument. You have no idea if those visitors came from Google, Bing, PPC, Solo Ads, Mars, Venus, or your asshole which is where your posts are apparently coming from.

Yet that hasn't stopped you from making some interesting & completely baseless claims yourself.

Do you have some direct evidence of how much of my traffic from Google was changed (or not)? If so, post it or move on.

Be truthful with yourself, the best you can say is that it was a bad example - not that Google traffic changed in any way or stayed the same because you don't know that.

If you are, tell me how the hell you know where my site's traffic is coming from and to what degree?

You just wrote an entire article about it with charts and trend lines to highlight your point. Why show those charts if they're irrelevant because the actual data where you came to your conclusion from is private?

You're the one making the claims and I've just highlighted some flaws in whats presented. I'd hate for someone to go and make drastic changes to their content based on shoehorned analysis only to do more harm than good.

I built my affiliate site up over a 2year period to #1 getting close to 1000 clicks/day and earning good money. Thanks to this new update by Google my sie is now useless. I have to try every trick in the book to recover.

Hi...
Does anyone have any idea that how "hummingbird" is working
and
what his effect on SEO?
i'm not getting any sufficient answer to understand "hummingbird".
So please help me to find out the relevant answer about this query.

Hummingbird had a pretty large impact on search results. I think I saw someone quote a figure of about 90~% percent search results affected. It was called Hummingbird due to it's so called "precision and accuracy". Personally though my sites didn't get affected by it.

Hummingbird had a pretty large impact on search results. I think I saw someone quote a figure of about 90~% percent search results affected. It was called Hummingbird due to it's so called "precision and accuracy". Personally though my sites didn't get affected by it.

I heard that this recent update from Google give more emphasis on the content quality rather than quantity? Is it correct?

Google hasn't give full details regarding this humming bird update. But this update just helps search engine users get exact results in the first search. I mean that this update handles complex search queries and avoids multiple searches to get an answer.

Writing in Nature, the biomechanistDouglas Warrick and coworkers studied the Rufous Hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus, in a wind tunnel using particle image velocimetry techniques and investigated the lift generated on the bird's upstroke and downstroke. They concluded that their subjects produced 75% of their weight support during the downstroke and 25% during the upstroke. Many earlier studies had assumed (implicitly or explicitly) that lift was generated equally during the two phases of the wingbeat cycle, as is the case of insects of a similar size. This finding shows that hummingbirds' hovering is similar to, but distinct from, that of hovering insects such as the hawk moths.[15]
The Giant Hummingbird's wings beat is as low as 12 beats per second, the wings of medium-sized hummingbirds beat about 20 to 30 beats per second and the smallest can reach 100 beats per second during courtship displays.

If your rankings have been in flux lately it may due to the Hummingbird update....

.

I've had some fun today using Google Voice search on the Galaxy 3. It does a good job of understanding and answering spoken questions like :What is the temperate in Sydney, where it speaks back the answer.

More complex questions like "Give me a list of pizza restaurants in Melbourne", it gives a list of Adwords ads and a few organic results.

So maybe if you had a pizza restaurant in Melbourne it may be worth while creating a page titled "List of pizza restaurants in Melbourne" to snag some of that Google Voice search traffic. Could be an interesting experiment.

I run a small SEO firm providing services to Local clients. Today I ran the rank tracking reports and ALL of my clients sites have had massive drops. We are talking sites that have been ranked in the number one spot for 2+ years are now in ranking in the 70s and 80s. Is anyone else seeing drops like this?

Currently I am tracking over 300 keywords. All were top 10 now maybe 1% is top 10. Yesterday all was fine and today SMACK.

I can see nothing these sites have in common (except they are all WP sites). Some have different host. I just had links built to a few but not all of them. Im at a loss here anyone have any clues?

My only guess is that is an Algo change. I am thinking google said they changed the algo a month ago but really they did it today. I have no evidence of this other than all my sites tanking at once with no other common thread ...any ideas...anyone else seeing huge drops today?

Thanks for the response. I havent built any links to most of these sites in 6 months to a year. When I did build them I outsources. Diverse links, diverse anchors, manual built ..web 2.0, blog comments, etc.

Thanks for the response. I havent built any links to most of these sites in 6 months to a year. When I did build them I outsources. Diverse links, diverse anchors, manual built ..web 2.0, blog comments, etc.

As you have outsourced, you must have tracking of all the backlinks they have built so far. Please review them and make sure there is Banned or spammy sites linking back to your site.

Thanks for the response. I havent built any links to most of these sites in 6 months to a year. When I did build them I outsources. Diverse links, diverse anchors, manual built ..web 2.0, blog comments, etc.

I run a small SEO firm providing services to Local clients. Today I ran the rank tracking reports and ALL of my clients sites have had massive drops. We are talking sites that have been ranked in the number one spot for 2+ years are now in ranking in the 70s and 80s. Is anyone else seeing drops like this?

Currently I am tracking over 300 keywords. All were top 10 now maybe 1% is top 10. Yesterday all was fine and today SMACK.

I can see nothing these sites have in common (except they are all WP sites). Some have different host. I just had links built to a few but not all of them. Im at a loss here anyone have any clues?

My only guess is that is an Algo change. I am thinking google said they changed the algo a month ago but really they did it today. I have no evidence of this other than all my sites tanking at once with no other common thread ...any ideas...anyone else seeing huge drops today?

Yea when you outsource the backlinks sometimes you don't know FOR SURE what kind of sites the links are being placed. Whether or not the PR is low and has more than 100 outbound links. This doesn't look good in google eyes.

Also you would have to consider if the backlinks are NICHE revelant. They being real douches but whatever, it's the for the "user experience".

Raise those social signals as well. Shares, likes, retweets and +1s. A lot of toss should help man.

I run a small SEO firm providing services to Local clients. Today I ran the rank tracking reports and ALL of my clients sites have had massive drops. We are talking sites that have been ranked in the number one spot for 2+ years are now in ranking in the 70s and 80s. Is anyone else seeing drops like this?

Currently I am tracking over 300 keywords. All were top 10 now maybe 1% is top 10. Yesterday all was fine and today SMACK.

I can see nothing these sites have in common (except they are all WP sites). Some have different host. I just had links built to a few but not all of them. Im at a loss here anyone have any clues?

My only guess is that is an Algo change. I am thinking google said they changed the algo a month ago but really they did it today. I have no evidence of this other than all my sites tanking at once with no other common thread ...any ideas...anyone else seeing huge drops today?

my website dropped from page 1 to page 2. I do local seo for my own company. Guess I shouldn't be to upset given competitive nature of it

I also noticed that sites with zero niche relevant links dropped harder then ones that do have a few legit links.

For example I had a client who had links from 20 referring domains (all belong to me) in combination with a bit of a thin website, he dropped quite hard (3-4 pages down)

Another client who had 5 niche relevant links (also coming from me) as well as links from another 20 or so referring domains (this is a more recent client, hence the niche relevant links as we didn't do them before), didn't drop at all!

And that above example is not an individual case.

Sure some did get away with it but mostly that involved sites that were more aged, more legit links overall (whether niche relevant or not), better quality sites.

Keep in mind it's always a combination of things. Some sites get away with poor back link profiles, others don't cause Penguin is not a stand alone thing, it;s just another weight factor in the algorithm so when you have enough brownie points at other fronts you get away with it.

Odd enough, my own SEO service website that I hardly ever build links to, only some natural and some very old link spam of 2 years ago (most got deleted luckily) moved up from dancing between #80 and #390 to position #44, shows how many SEO experts have dropped from the first 10 pages

My site hardly gets links from my network though, only 1 or 2 links from niche relevant ones and lately I added my site to 1 paid website gallery from another warrior that I know for quite some time (he had a good strong domain).

Maybe you just gotta be polite. Couldn't have been hit much harder....
Those things were buried long ago...

People forget that when a good lot of your "best" backlinks go
belly-up, or the pages on them do, then you just might suffer.

So it's not really a penalty to you, per se, but to other sites that are
dragging you down for the ride. If you don't want such a bumpy ride,
perhaps people need to really, and I mean REALLY, start smartening
up about pages that they drop a link on.

Maybe you just gotta be polite. Couldn't have been hit much harder....
Those things were buried long ago...

People forget that when a good lot of your "best" backlinks go
belly-up, or the pages on them do, then you just might suffer.

So it's not really a penalty to you, per se, but to other sites that are
dragging you down for the ride. If you don't want such a bumpy ride,
perhaps people need to really, and I mean REALLY, start smartening
up about pages that they drop a link on.

Paul

Agreed that those were buried long ago but not to the full extend, you could still get away with it. Now it even seems to hurt when you only have like 100 of these links.

Still others do get away with it, Google is always a bit surprising here and there but they definitely pulled the strings tighter again.

Obvious there's a huge difference between ranking based solely on those links or having them in your link profile. The 1st case kind of impossible, the 2nd case you could get away with if there weren't too many and you had plenty of other links. Nowadays most don't get away with that anymore.

It's very bad..I've never experienced of ranking drop like this..Have the sites been cross linked each other..? If yes It may be the cause...Or Do they have duplicate contents..?
You'd better to check your backlinks and your content very well...

Kind of early to really narrow it down but I do think there was some kind of new weighting on the high pr non-relevant links, regardless of where they came from (Web 2. or whatever).

One way that you might figure out what and why would be to do a search on your keywords and see the current top ten. I did and what I saw was a lot of old style websites that surged to the front. The number one on several searches really sucked as far as look and feel. Content was OK, didn't pull a link analysis yet but I'm betting they don't have a huge amount of high pr non related links.

The first few days of any update are always an adventure. I would wait a few days before going crazy and see how this one settles down. I've had sites initially drop but then bounce back up on many updates. I'm sure more details will become more obvious as time goes on and it's probably a good idea to wait and see at least for a week.

I have always relied on uploading good content to my blogs and only really made about 10 backlinks on each site in relevant places. Now all my blogs are very near the top. Positions 1-3 for my keywords.

Amazing, every time an update rolls around, not 2 days later people squauk, "your links suck", "you should quit seo" (oh, now that's helpful advice), and finally when the deck reshuffles, all it ends up being about is something like SAPE or Payday loans. The only real solid piece of advice given so far was from Texjd.

That will do it for any penguin update. You can't assume if you didn't get hit in the previous update you won't in the next. In fact each update of penguin is going after the sites that escaped last time

I predict this latest update will open the floodgates to even more negative SEO. I really don't believe that Google thinks through the unintended consequences of its changes. Maybe it does, but just doesn't care.:confused:

I monitor a bunch of client sites and the one that dropped 40 spots + were ALL web2.0 back-links that even had unique content - This update affects Web2.0s backlinks explicitly whether only Web2.0 remains the question. I'm wondering about "irrelevant" high PR links. Any one know about this one?

Traffic dropped for one of my sites yesterday and today. But sales are up. It seems that crap traffic took a hit. I'm liking it. There seems to be a pattern of google sending crap traffic and it all gets exciting because the stats look like they're going up and your website is becoming popular but what they're doing is just passing off crap traffic and then taking it away. It's like a sheep pen where they can see the dip coming up and they start panicking and just bolt.
I think google's penguin algo is totally about relevancy and it is actually working. Fair play to them.

I would like to see the link profiles of folks saying they dropped 100+ positions in Google SERPs, those links have to be low quality. Don't really expect anyone to show anything, just saying I can't imagine a decent site with a decent link profile dropping off into oblivion for no reason.

Dont think that "hummingbird" affected the rankings (alot), our pages are still on their positions and other webmaster friends are having the same results. We mostly use diversified anchors and really relevant and quality links, so no matter the update, we feel no fear!

I think my website is hit by Google Hummingbird update because from last two month my website traffic has come down and also my main targeting keyword was on first page of Google and now its on fourth or fifth page of Google what should i do now and what SEO should i do for my website to come up again on first page of Google and what Hummingbird update is all about

I think my website is hit by Google Hummingbird update because from the last two months my website traffic has come down and also my main targeting keyword was on first page of Google and now its on fourth or fifth page of Google what should i do now and what SEO should i do for my website to come up again on first page of Google and what Hummingbird update is all about

Well, first of all, you mentioned that your keywords are not in rank since last 2 months and you have doubts on google hummingbird update. But here, I want to say that google update this new algorithm on it's 15th birthday, (Sep, 27) but started using Hummingbird about a month ago. This new algorithm have ability to fetch fast, precise and better result then panda and penguin.

Experts are saying that Google killing SEO but it is not truth. Google update it's algorithm to give better result. If you build spammy back links to increase your ranking then it will definitly effect your website.

But in case you have always follow white at SEO, initial, important articles, in addition to high-quality in addition to relevant websites usually are linking to your web pages, ones serps needs to be solid.

@seomaster5 Thanks For your reply on my comment but the effect of humming bird was seen before one month and my website ranking and traffic was getting low from last few month i want to ask you what should i do if my website is effected and what SEO Method should i applied in my seo work

I think my website is hit by Google Hummingbird update because from last two month my website traffic has come down and also my main targeting keyword was on first page of Google and now its on fourth or fifth page of Google what should i do now and what SEO should i do for my website to come up again on first page of Google and what Hummingbird update is all about

Been on the 4th to 5th page is good and worthy of celebration.

Many sites went off the radar completely.

However, it all boils down to quality links again.

Normally, after a while your SERP should increase but getting on page one is no guarantee without adequate relevant links.

Smarter results though, with penguin 2.1 a few of the sites are kicked off from their top rankings, while the other has been geared up front. Google, on trying to make the searches and search results smarter has made the sites experience peaks and valleys even if the white hat methods were complied.
Having such updates makes the search results wiser or does it tends the webmasters to get it on with Paid options?

Humming bird says short anchor text should be avoided and content must be real & relevant.
How ever the content may be real & relevant, a well designed site make easier for Google spider to find the real content and also authorship becomes more important factor.

On my view, number of sites getting their position back. So, you could wait and see after 3-4 days.

If you analyzed correctly, this time Google point out paid link network site. Many of the sites and ranking has been flushed away. Many are looking for recovery. If you want also, contact me on skype:encore.digital

Hummingbird update is mainly concerned to quality and research based content. Do your website has something, users are looking for? if your answer is yes then you are safe. Otherwise you need to work for the contents.

I have an e-commerce website. I had about 15 keywords ranking top 10 list @ google.

But about 7 days ago, there are gone from google search results.
It's terrible. It's about a week now, and how can I do now?
Many thanks.

I lost all My keyword ranking .
Can you tell me why?

you were probably hit by Penguin and not by humming bird update. It's too early to come to the conclusion that you have lost rankings wait for another week for the update waves to settle and then check your rankings.

Recently Google roll out their new penguin 2.1 updates. my few keywords ranking dropped, could please new Link Building strategies to boost my ranking except Guest Posting, Blog Commenting and Forums all these things. and On Which thing I have to pay more concentrate to maintain or recover ranking?

Recently Google roll out their new penguin 2.1 updates. my few keywords ranking dropped, could please new Link Building strategies to boost my ranking except Guest Posting, Blog Commenting and Forums all these things. and On Which thing I have to pay more concentrate to maintain or recover ranking?

Thanks

First disavow, second without quality content you can recover but it take longer to recover. If you have any product signup on high quality sites like download.com sourceforge and submit product over there.

Hummingbird is basically a change in how Google interprets the intent of a user’s query to ensure the returned results are appropriate.There is no need to worry about ranking loss if you have original, high-quality content.
Here are some useful tips:
1. Adapt your keyword strategy for conversational queries. Do not write dulicate post for similar keywords.
2. Leverage synonyms and co-occurring terms
3. Strive for co-citation
4. Re-consider your anchor texts
5. Pay more attention to Universal Search listings
6. Utilize structured data markup

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Hummingbird is basically a change in how Google interprets the intent of a user's query to ensure the returned results are appropriate.There is no need to worry about ranking loss if you have original, high-quality content.
Here are some useful tips:
1. Adapt your keyword strategy for conversational queries. Do not write dulicate post for similar keywords.
2. Leverage synonyms and co-occurring terms
3. Strive for co-citation
4. Re-consider your anchor texts
5. Pay more attention to Universal Search listings
6. Utilize structured data markup

The good news is that if you have decent content, most of the updates will push your site up. I have an authority site with 200k - 250k page view per month and the page views have gone up to 300k per month.

All this with no crazy link building, just built relevant backlinks manually (slowly) over a period of time and haven't added any new content / backlinks for a long time.

this recent update has made a big effect on my search quires. Many keywords lost their position. I think Webmaster must be more careful before posting link and crap content. We need to do more research and watch on information from google.

I think this might be a good idea to start "targeting" longer key phrases, longtail keywords, ETC. If you think about it, people who do SEO, or know SEO, tend to use Google differently.

When I do a search trying to watch The Simpsons on the internet, it will look like this:

watch simpsons online free

When the other 90% of the population (people who don't know SEO) do a search, it usually looks something like this:

where can i watch the simpsons online for free?

Even though we know you would probably get better results from doing it my way, the majority of the population doesn't search like we do. I have seen my friends and family type the weirdest phrases into Google, when 1 or 2 keywords would of brought them exactly what they wanted. We can probably thank Ask Jeeves and the beginning of search engines for this kind of "searching"

With voice recognition letting you "ask" your smart phone questions, and AI Apps like Siri, the structure of "keywording" is changing.

This also means more results, more room for more sites, and more keywords to focus on, pretty soon, more Google Searches will be done from phones and tablets than PC's and Desktops, accommodating the new platform comes with accommodating the searchers.

Now check this out, do a search for:

watch the simpsons online free

and put the results side by side with this search

where can i watch the simpsons online for free?

They are nearly the same results, something that wouldn't have happen before.

Most of my searches have dropped from being on page 1 down to the 5th page or less.

This is going to ruin my business, and what is worse, is that the sites that are above me now have little to NO links, some have NO meta descriptions, NO H1 tags and the no.1 position for one search is in Faking Chinese!!!

Oh, and after checking Analytics it has dropped over the last month. The visitors to my site have dropped over two thirds.

Anyone got any ideas, anything I can do to reboot my searches? Should I change anything yet?

Most of my searches have dropped from being on page 1 down to the 5th page or less.

This is going to ruin my business, and what is worse, is that the sites that are above me now have little to NO links, some have NO meta descriptions, NO H1 tags and the no.1 position for one search is in Faking Chinese!!!

Oh, and after checking Analytics it has dropped over the last month. The visitors to my site have dropped over two thirds.

Anyone got any ideas, anything I can do to reboot my searches? Should I change anything yet?

DO you realize that all the links in your signature go to 404 pages ....

seo999, your WF Sig links are ridiculous (as in the structure). I know your just trying to get some links from WF everyitme you make a post through your sig, (because there is not going to be much "direct traffic" due to the fact that this forum has nothing to do with Cambodia anything) it could actually be hurting your site in the long run. Just a heads up. Google is cracking down on excessive exact match anchor texts, especially in forum sigs, and especially from forums un-related to your site. Not trying to be a d*ck, but I would put money on it. Now it would be mean of me not to offer an alternative after saying that, so when you get some free time, check out Fodor's Travel Guides - Plan Your Trip Online They are a travel site, with a forum section related to Asia.

seo999, your WF Sig links are ridiculous (as in the structure). I know your just trying to get some links from WF everyitme you make a post through your sig, (because there is not going to be much "direct traffic" due to the fact that this forum has nothing to do with Cambodia anything) it could actually be hurting your site in the long run. Just a heads up. Google is cracking down on excessive exact match anchor texts, especially in forum sigs, and especially from forums un-related to your site. Not trying to be a d*ck, but I would put money on it. Now it would be mean of me not to offer an alternative after saying that, so when you get some free time, check out Fodor's Travel Guides - Plan Your Trip Online They are a travel site, with a forum section related to Asia.

Thanks for your honest opinion and advice. Is there anything else? I have quite a few backlinks from one of the Warriors on here, is it worth getting rid of them if at all possible?

It's hard to say, I respect a lot of the "SEO Guys" on here, not saying there are not any bad apples, but the better question would be has everything you have done for your site "SEO Wise" caught up to your rankings yet? Sometimes what you do today effects your site a month later. A lot of people go crazy and get tons of different packages from a bunch of different providers at the same time, then their site tanks, and it's hard to figure out what worked and what didn't work. After these new updates, I expect Google to move rankings around and just cause a shock wave in rankings. Google Dance is real, and can leave webmasters feeling like they need to un-do previous SEO efforts and get new ones, when in reality, you should be setting it up so your SEO is slow and steady, and consistent. I have heard from a lot of people that the dissavow tool takes forever, never really works, doesn't do anything ETC, and I also know how much of a pain in the @ss it is to remove links, especially if you didn't create them yourself, and there is a lot. Google reconsideration requests tell the same story. No one wants to sit around and wait for Google to lock in their rankings so they can adjust their SEO efforts accordingly, so what should you do? I wouldn't worry too much about on page SEO if you were once in the top, that tells me that your website was just fine and "top worthy" so it sounds to me like your links got devalued, or just plain marked for death. Check your website out in GWMT, if your "Links to your site" section has some pretty awful links in it, then it's gotta be your link profile. Most people would suggest starting over, with a new site, but that would just take a lot of effort, time, money w/e. I would just start creating relevant links on relevant sites with some good content around your links. Type in your keywords on Google, and find the sites in the top 10 that allow you to leave feedback, comments, or write posts / join a forum. That should be your new stomping grounds as far as building links go.

In the past 2 years, Google has taken major steps toward web spamming and copying of data from one website to another. These updates such as Panda and Penguin struck fear in the hearts of SEOs and Their client's ranking fumbled a lot. While Panda, Penguin affected up to 3 percent of search queries and still caused panic.
The last google update that replaced this much of the search engine was Caffeine, which introduced live search and keyword suggestion tools and lot of people have forgotten the huge impact it had on social signals.
The relevant techniques were affected a lot by google and now this hummingbird update. :confused: Uhh !!
Now my question goes that how these updates are modifying the way a SEO works? What should be carried out forward in planning and why?

most noteworth with the updates is social signals. Google takes into account and values social signals very highly, but more specifically with the hummingbird update google now has like u said the smart search where if you type in a keyword instead of ranking content based on that keyword, google ranks content according to what it's algorithm thinks the user is actually searching for.

In the past 2 years, Google has taken major steps toward web spamming and copying of data from one website to another. These updates such as Panda and Penguin struck fear in the hearts of SEOs and Their client's ranking fumbled a lot. While Panda, Penguin affected up to 3 percent of search queries and still caused panic.
The last google update that replaced this much of the search engine was Caffeine, which introduced live search and keyword suggestion tools and lot of people have forgotten the huge impact it had on social signals.
The relevant techniques were affected a lot by google and now this hummingbird update. :confused: Uhh !!
Now my question goes that how these updates are modifying the way a SEO works? What should be carried out forward in planning and why?

Just to clarify, Google's updates had little to do with those copying data from one site to another. They seemed to focus more on those with low quality (spun) content, and those with spammy backlink profiles. Those of us who 'copied' (aka syndicated or guest posted or whatever you feel like calling it) didn't get the slap.

If you 'copy' content in the proper way (and with the permission of the individual who owns the content) it is beneficial to users, and will help your SEO. If you 'copy' content like most people in the IM world do it, yes, you will get the Google punch.

So Google's new Hummingbird update seems to have stirred up quite a few different opinions about how SEO is going to work from here on out. Some people think it's nothing to worry about while others say it changes everything. I was just wondering what your thoughts were on this and if you could tell me how it's affecting your own take on SEO.

No doubt this has put pressure on lots of people, but does it mean SEO has lost it's effectiveness entirely or simply that marketers need to change their approach?

More specifically, which off-site optimization activities you think are still going to work now?

In my point of view, the latest Humming Bird update is quite stable and reflects better than the previous Panda and Pengiun updates and usually webmasters are not happy these updates but it seems that with Humming they are also happy because they are now generating traffic.

I don't think this will have a huge impact on my style of searching. If Google gives me the answer on the search page, then I will likely double check via a more authoritative source in the search listings. But if someone else wants to make use of this new technology, then why not? Though it could have impact for some sites.

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In the light of the new Google update,people start wondering :"How Will this update effect my rankings and my SEO work?"
I thought we could dig into this topic here.
For the Wordpress users-have you been using the Yoast plug since then the update?

How Much Changes happen After Hummingbird Algorithm Change
Truly saying that I do not see that much of changes to be very honest.

There is more "semantic" stuff in Hummingbird, a lot of hype about "semantic" search. Google can how "handle natural questions." Like, if you type in. "How do I find the best restaurant in Boston" -- Google now knows how to drop the "how do I find" part and search for "best restaurant in Boston." There is a bit more used of synonyms in rankings too.

Internet marketing has become key in determining whether a business moves to the next level or stagnates. Content, Search engine optimization, web analytics, and social media are some of the ...
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